Shielded electrical connectors are used in the electronics industry for their ability to shield electrical circuits from the deleterious effects of ambient electrical or electromagnetic energy, i.e. EMI. A standard shield design provides a ground path whereby the electromagnetic energy is drained to ground and is thereby dissipated. Shielded connectors often include pin contacts as a means of electrically connecting the connector to, for example, a printed circuit board. For manufacturing reliability, the pins are protected and guided to specific soldering locations on the printed circuit board by a pin guide member. Assuming that the reliability of the finished shielded connector product is satisfactory, the cost of production of such electrical connectors is often the determining factor as to whether the product will be commercially successful. Therefore, in general, the combination of high reliability of the shielded connector with the low overall cost thereof is most advantageous.
A known shielded connector assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,069, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, which assembly provides a shielded connector housing with a pin guide member. A board lock is integrally formed with the shield, and the pin guide member is mounted to the connector by gussets which extend from a rear face of the connector. The unitary shield/board lock construction is expensive to manufacture, and presents potential manufacturing and assembly difficulties as well. Moreover, largely due to the gusset structure, the known connector would disadvantageously use a copious amount of space in an electronics package.